Turn the other tweet

In the recent national elections (6 June) PES… “Solidarity Encounter Party”… had a very simple platform: “Just say no!”… No to abortion (so far, only available… at least legally… in two states, Mexico City and Oaxaca) and same-sex marriage.

The voters agreed: they just said no. Presented a choice of two coalitions and 11 separate parties, PES received only 2.68 of the vote, well below the 3 percent threshhold needed to retain it’s party registration, and even below the number of blank or intenionally spoiled ballots: 3.41 percent of the 490 cast ballots. As of this week, the party is being “liquidated”, not only losing its rights as a national party, but forced to liquidate its assets.

Although opposition to liberalizing abortion laws remains strong, opposition to same sex marriage is pretty much a thing of the past… available in Mexico City since 2007, and since 2010, anywhere in the republic… with a proviso. Opposition from state legislators to changing their state constitutions to reflect what has been recognized as a basic civil right has led to a weird and inconvient problem in the hold-out states. While the rights that come with marriage from any one state are the same in all states, several states still refused to issue marriage licenses to same sex couples, who need to ask a federal judge for an injunction to receive a license. Since June 2015, thanks to a follow up Supreme Court ruling, every federal judge MUST grant such an injunction. While not terribly expensive to file with the court, it does involve extra fees and some legal saavy, so far restricting the rights of some couples in several states to those with money and education. Needless to say, not all LGBTQ+ people are rich, smart and beautiful nor are the majority of Mexicans … well… rich anyway.

All that aside, the hold out states have just been dragging their heels on making the necessary changes to their state constitutions and/or marriage laws that reflect the reality. Although there are still some objections from conservatives, even PAN — which includes among its founding fathers, not just traditioalist Catholics, but fascists (the real kind, 1930s style)– doesn’t put up much opposition. At most, as they did in Sinaloa the past weekend, abstain from voting, or make themselves scarce, when the state Assembly finally got around to changing the law (under a Supreme Court order to get it done). Baja California, one state where US style Evangelicals hold more sway, followed a few days later.

Which brings us back to the hapless PES-ers. Allegedly (and the facts, as they say, are disputed) the party somehow “forgot” to pay the network managers hired to run their campaign twitter account. ALLEGEDLY… said network manager posted the following tweet:

As George Takai migh say… “Oh, myyyyyyy”!. As one waggish commenter noted, the post received more likes than the number of votes PES managed to win. Not quite true, but certainly reflective of the senibilities of those who care enough to even follow the party’s twitter account.

Sources: INE posted election results, Forbes Mexico, (here and there), La Jornada Maya.

A footnote: PES is bizzaro. Under its previous incarnation “Social Encounter” it was part of the AMLO coalition in the 2018 presidential election. How they fit in with the Social Democratic Morena and the Socialist Workers Party was a mystery, although AMLO himself is know to be a socially conservative and a religious believer (whether a capital “C” Catholic, or small “c” Christian isn’t quite clear, though he’s more prone to quote Jesus than Karl Marx when he speaks… matter of fact, I’ve never heard him quote Karl, or even reference the guy). Many evangelicals in Mexico, while socially traditionalist, are also indigenous or poor.. and the coalition’s open appeal to both groups… might have made them appear a likely ally. As it was, in 2018, while they managed to win a few elections here and there (notably in Morelos, where the candidate toned down the religious appeal, and ran as what he was… a world-famous soccer star), they lost their registration. Even with the slightly changed name, their Second Coming was a bust, too. Amen to that!